[idi banashapan]

buy an external hdd and run a backup to that using something like 'SyncToy 2' (free from the Microsoft site) if you are just after things like Photos and music. set the job up as a contribution and away you go. you can then leave the external drive locked in a work draw or something until you next run a backup. this means it is off-site, so if your house burns down, you still have the important data elsewhere. you buy external 2.5" hdd nice and cheap these days. although backing up to media such as dvd/cd-rw does away with mechanical failure on its part, it is very unlikely that 2 hard drives will fail at the same time, meaning you lose everything. plus, it's sooooo much faster to run the jobs and much less hassle.

I also agree with Zing on having a physical drive for OS and a separate physical drive for data. I have done that since around 1998 and would never change that.